Hate Crimes Against LGBT People Are Sadly Common

A vigil for victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting on Sunday at The Center, a community center for the LGBT community in Las Vegas.

John Locher / AP

The massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando on Sunday was the worst mass shooting in American history and the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11. Through another lens, however, it was not an outlier. The gunman’s choice of target, a gay club, makes him just one of many to commit hate crimes against gay Americans. Although the magnitude and violence of the attack was unusual, the targeting of LGBT Americans is sadly common.

BIAS AGAINST …

NO. OF INCIDENTS

Race

Overall

2,568

Blacks or African-Americans

1,621

Whites

593

Asians

140

American Indians or Alaska Natives

130

Multiple races, group

81

Native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islander

3

Sexual orientation and gender identity

Overall

1,115

Gay men

599

Lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender persons, group

241

Lesbians

129

Transgender persons

58

Gender non-conforming persons

40

Bisexuals

30

Heterosexuals

18

Religion

Overall

1,014

Jewish people

609

Muslims

154

Other religions

107

Catholics

64

Multiple religions, group

44

Protestants

25

Atheists/agnostics/etc.

11

Ethnicity, disability and gender

765

Total

5,462

‘Single-bias’ hate crime incidents by motivation, 2014

Source: FBI

Of 5,462 “single-bias incidents” (hate-crime incidents with one motivation) in the FBI’s 2014 hate crime statistics database, 1,115, about a fifth, were motivated by bias against a sexual orientation or gender identity.1 (This count is almost certainly much lower than the actual number of hate crimes. Data on hate crimes is notoriously difficult to collect, as it relies heavily on self-reporting and many hate crimes are never categorized as such.) Of those incidents, 54 percent targeted gay men specifically. Only two groups were the targets of more hate crimes than gay men: black and Jewish people. (Obviously, all these groups aren’t mutually exclusive.)

Taking into account the relatively small size of the LGBT population, these numbers are even starker. According to an analysis by the Southern Poverty Law Center using FBI hate crime data and population estimates, LGBT Americans are targeted in hate crimes at 8.3 times the rate you’d expect based on the size of their population; that’s higher than the rate for both Jews (at 3.5) and black people (at 3.2).

The Orlando attack was a little more unusual in its choice of location. Nightclubs are relatively rare as locations for hate crimes against LGBT people.

LOCATION

SHARE

Residence/home

32.2%

–

Highway/road/alley/street/sidewalk

23.0

–

School/university

7.6

–

Parking/drop lot/garage

5.8

–

Restaurant

2.2

–

Bar/nightclub

2.1

–

Park/playground

1.6

–

Air/bus/train terminal

1.3

–

Jail/prison/penitentiary/corrections facility

1.3

–

Government/public building

1.2

–

Other

21.7

–

Hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity by location, 2014

Of 1,115 hate crimes classified by location

Source: FBI

However, the shooter’s choice of location may have been all the more insidious for that. A gay-friendly bar or club is supposed to be a safe place. Even before Sunday’s shooting, nightclubs were slightly more dangerous for LGBT people than for other groups; only 1.6 percent of all hate crimes in 2014 occurred in bars and nightclubs, compared with the 2.1 percent of those that targeted people for their sexual orientation and gender identity.

The motivations of the killer may become clearer as investigators learn more. Nevertheless, in his choice to target gay people, he wasn’t alone.